Reload 223/5.56?

5.56 ammo is cheap enough most of the time to not make it worth the effort. When most of the time doesn’t exist, and you can‘t find it, reloading then makes perfect sense.

I'm sure it's all in my head, but an hour or day of shooting is always more satisfying if it's my own recipe

.223/5.56 is certainly worth at least being equipped to reload for. When the next panic rears it’s ugly head and you can’t find the ammo to buy you can go into emergency mode and load your own. This is my method for .223/5.56 as well as 9mm, when plentiful I buy but in the event of lack of availability, I am good to go.

Yes, loading 223 definitely worth it. Get small base dies. No problems if (when) you get an AR.

AJC1 said:

I found Hornaday crimping 223

Click to expand...

And Federal and Remington and enough others that I now assume all range pick up is crimped.

Nature Boy said:

And Federal and Remington and enough others that I now assume all range pick up is crimped.

Click to expand...

I'm curious if that observation was 556, as rem 223 isn't crimped... is there a definitive line like having the nato circle plus....

I load 5.56/.223, jacketed and played with powder coated cast bullets once, too. HUGE pain in the tushie, there, but I have plenty of time, a nice new reloading nook my mother in law built for me, and I consider reloading a productive and relaxing hobby. Maybe I don't have match grade ammo, maybe some of the stuff I put together is juts blasting/have fun ammo, that's fine - I enjoy it.

Charlie Martinez said:

2. Is it (money wise) worth the trouble?

Click to expand...

In all honesty, only you can answer that question for yourself.

If you are already loading bottleneck cases then you are already acquainted with what is involved. About the only real difference is the issue of crimped primer pockets.. Loading .224" bullets is no more difficult than 90gr .355 bullets for a 380.

I have been loading 223 for competition target shooting for almost 3 years now and for what I do it is more than worth the time, money and effort. With a factory barrel Savage I can consistently shoot 1" groups at 300 yards. or at 100 yards shoot 2 hole 3 shot groups. But then I also spend at least as much time in brass prep as I do actual loading.

So it all boils down to what is important to you. How much time and effort do you want to invest?

AJC1 said:

I'm curious if that observation was 556, as rem 223 isn't crimped... is there a definitive line like having the nato circle plus....

Click to expand...

I started seeing crimped Remington brand .223 a few years back. I’ll dig through my pile and see if I can find an example.

These aren’t distinguishable from civilian .223, other than some are crimped.

As of late I have been finding 223 Norma that has staked primers

kmw1954 said:

In all honesty, only you can answer that question for yourself.

If you are already loading bottleneck cases then you are already acquainted with what is involved. About the only real difference is the issue of crimped primer pockets.. Loading .224" bullets is no more difficult than 90gr .355 bullets for a 380.

I have been loading 223 for competition target shooting for almost 3 years now and for what I do it is more than worth the time, money and effort. With a factory barrel Savage I can consistently shoot 1" groups at 300 yards. or at 100 yards shoot 2 hole 3 shot groups. But then I also spend at least as much time in brass prep as I do actual loading.

So it all boils down to what is important to you. How much time and effort do you want to invest?

Click to expand...

^^^^ This

AJC1 said:

I found Hornaday crimping 223 and 308. The 308 surprised me the first time.

Click to expand...

Somehow I ended up with a bag of Hornaday .223 with crimped pockets. No Mil markings or NATO cross. It was surprising since I'd never seen commercial ammo with a crimp. It is good brass once you take the extra step of reaming the primer pocket.
Wonder why they do this?

1KPerDay said:

Reloading 5.56/.223 is a PITA and I stopped trying. If ammo supply gets bad enough again I'll reattempt. But based on my first couple of tries, it's not worth the hassle FOR ME. I do reload .308 and .30-06 and .30-30 so I know how to put a rifle cartridge together. For some reason .223 gives me every bit of trouble there is. Stuck cases, PITA to trim and handle, PITA to charge through that tiny neck, etc. 4-stake primer pockets suck, also.

Click to expand...

Hmmmm... Been reloading .223/5.56 for AR's since the late 80's and enjoyed it. Easy to resize, small powder charges and then bullet seating. But, to each their own.

Nature Boy said:

I started seeing crimped Remington brand .223 a few years back. I’ll dig through my pile and see if I can find an example.

These aren’t distinguishable from civilian .223, other than some are crimped.

Click to expand...

I found enough crimped 223 that I just swage everything. That includes the Norma mentioned above. I like their staked primers. They are at least easy to see.

Crimped primers was one big reason why I bought this baby.

Charlie Martinez said:

I currently reload 243 Win, 30-06 and 35 Remington. Considering buying dies for 223/5.56 but I have some questions:
1. Are they (relatively speaking) difficult to reload? ie Is there anything in particular that makes either one harder to reload than any of the ones I already have? As others have mentioned, some cases have crimped primer pockets, which must either be swaged or reamed. Not that big a deal, tools are available to remove the crimp from $13 to $165, depending on how much you want to spend. I kind of like picking up free crimped brass at the range. You know it is once fired!
2. Is it (money wise) worth the trouble? It is to me. I watch for great deals on powder, primers and projectiles and buy in bulk. I process brass in large quantities (de-prime, liquid tumble, dry, resize, trim if needed, swage/ream primer pockets if needed, and prime). Then I store the primed brass (same headstamp and primers) and when I need ammo, I simply charge the cases with powder and seat the bullets of choice. Even my cheap blasting ammo with 55 gr FMJ bullets are significantly cheaper than factory ammo and more accurate to boot. And my precision ammo is a LOT less expensive and more accurate, too.

Click to expand...

Besides dies, the only other thing you would need would be small rifle primers, which are relatively easy to find (compared to the last couple of years) and are slightly more affordable recently than they have been during the latest component drought. You might be able to use the same powder that you have on hand for your .35 Remington. But if you need powder recommendations, I can vouch for Ramshot TAC, X-Terminator, Accurate 2230 and 2460 and Shooters World AR Plus. If available, they tend to be cheaper than Hodgdon, IMR, Alliant or Vihta Vuori. And they all are spherical (ball) powders, so they flow nicely through a powder measure.

Like any other caliber, the work of it all is basically dependent upon what you are intending to use it for.

As for the cost or worth of it all, I would put that as to how much you want or need at any given time. If you only need a couple boxes a year to go blasting with, naa pick a good brand name product and buy bulk. If you plan to do anything competitive that might also be a viable option.

For me they are just another caliber, just another empty case I need to fill. I usually collect brass, clean it, and dump it into a bucket, or gallon bag depending upon the caliber. I process brass and load in batches so one weekend I might start Saturday morning and sort half a 5gal bucket by headstamp. Those will then be deprimed and sized on Sunday.

For 223 & 308, I sort the crimped separately when initially sorting. When I deprime them they go to the swager or are trimmed using the proper size pocket trimmer on an RCBS Trim Mate. After that I trim to length and they go into storage marked "READY TO LOAD".

It might sound terrible but it goes fast, and some good tunes on the radio help it right along. I load between 100 and 500 at a time and all are done on a single stage press. In a year, I might shoot 20 or 2500, just depends on what the mood is or where I'm shooting. For the most part I keep 1 - 1.5K loaded and ready, then just load up when I get below.

Worth it is different for each guy. During shortages its great to have the ability to load your own. During times of plenty stock up on the free range brass.

Prep work is the demon in the process. I like to do about 500 to a 1000 at a time.

De prime on single stage with a Lee universal de priming die.

Then I tumble with SS ins to get them clean.

Lube with a spray lube for sizing,

Size and trim on a Dillon RT1200.

Swage the primer pockets on one of the Dillon tools. I am not a fan of the reaming of the pockets.

Back in the tumbler to clean the lube off.

After that they are ready to load up.

WB

I can always build a better round than what I can buy premade so theres that. For blasting ammo I buy when it is cheap. When shortages happen I already have several good recipes figured out and components on hand.
I spend the winter months doing brass prep so all I have to do later is prime, charge, and seat. I have come to the realization that it is faster to trim and swage each peice of brass every time rather than measure length or check for crimp. Once I pick up a peice of brass, two or three operations before I put that particular brass into a container saves me time so a turret and seperate press set up to swage helps me process faster.
We all have our own built in "worth it" point and it seems on here that varies widely. FWIW I have the ability to reload for every centerfire I own and that has been a blessing in the past.

Wildbillz said:

Worth it is different for each guy. During shortages its great to have the ability to load your own. During times of plenty stock up on the free range brass.

Prep work is the demon in the process. I like to do about 500 to a 1000 at a time.

De prime on single stage with a Lee universal de priming die.

Then I tumble with SS ins to get them clean.

Lube with a spray lube for sizing,

Size and trim on a Dillon RT1200.

Swage the primer pockets on one of the Dillon tools. I am not a fan of the reaming of the pockets.

Back in the tumbler to clean the lube off.

After that they are ready to load up.

WB

Click to expand...

A reamer is a scary tool, and I'd wager does more damage than good. Never intend to use one...

AJC1 said:

A reamer is a scary tool, and I'd wager does more damage than good. Never intend to use one...

Click to expand...

Anything is a scary tool in the hands of anyone who doesn’t know the proper use….

….. and, NO, that wasn’t directed at anyone specifically…just a statement…..

AJC1 said:

A reamer is a scary tool, and I'd wager does more damage than good. Never intend to use one...

Click to expand...

Ya I have picked up some at the range that looked like you would be able to see the sides of the primer cup on them. I know it can be done right but for me the swagger just works fine. Now when I started I did over swage some cases learning to use it.

WB

AJC1 said:

A reamer is a scary tool, and I'd wager does more damage than good. Never intend to use one...

Click to expand...

Wildbillz said:

Now when I started I did over swage some cases learning to use it.

Click to expand...

I tried the swager route... bought a C&H press-mounted swage tool. I very likely destroyed more brass than I successfully swaged... it just didn't work well... for me. The problem I was having was... when I swaged it without mangling the rim, I still couldn't seat a primer. To get it to seat a primer, I bent the rim. 7.62mm was bad, but 5.56mm was the worst. I couldn't win...

I use my Lyman case prep machine... easy peasy. Sooner has it right... you have to know what you are doing. I sacrificed a few pieces of brass, and a few primers to learn what to look and feel for with the Lyman, and off I went.

Never thought about it. It's so simple a cave man can do it.
Lyman inside chamfer- reamer cuts crimp like butter. You just can't mess up loading .223. Like making a cake. Follow recipe.

I tooled up to reload 223 this past summer. I've done most of the steps experimentally but have not started to load in earnest. I needed to put that project on pause when school started, and then hunting season, and other projects. I've yet to acquire the primers (I have 1 or 2 boxes), the brass, and my powder of choice (I have a few pounds of H335 but I'll likely use something else).

For me the reason to reload 223 is to have the best loads I can make for a Mini-14, and because I enjoy hand loading. If I had an accurate bolt-action in 223, I would certainly reload for that. Reloading for a Mini-14 might be a bit suspect then, considering they're known for their inaccuracy. I'm hoping that is a bit of stigma left over from the Mini's earlier pencil-barrel design and a bit of myth and exaggeration. My Mini has not demonstrated bad accuracy yet, but I haven't worked with it enough to determine just how accurate it is. I don't intend it to be scoped (except for load development) or to hit small targets at many hundreds of yards. So why reload?

I believe I can save money, but not for the cheap 55 gr. FMJ ammo. Factory 223 with high-performance expanding bullets like Barnes TTSX, Hornady CX, Nosler E-tip, is expensive. If these components can be sourced inexpensively as seconds, they can be loaded into cartridges at significant savings provided sufficient scale (thousands of rounds). The savings in reloading 223 isn't in the NATO-spec overruns, but in the special-purpose cartridges for varmints, hunting, etc.

Saving money loading high-performance cartridges can't be done with mixed headstamp range scrounge brass, nor can it easily be done with new Lapua cases. I've got to find a source of quality, same headstamp fired brass that isn't damaged. My initial plan was to shoot my own supply of LC brass, but having procured enough cartridges, I decided to keep them instead of shooting them. Now I think I've found a source for what I want, but I haven't acquired it yet.

I also need to acquire those SR primers as mentioned. It's a pity I didn't get them when they were 7.9 cents a few months ago. On the other hand, since loaded 556 has also gone way up in price just in the last couple months, reloading could be a better proposition. Doing it to save depends on buying components when they're priced low. It might take years to find the components at good prices, but some of them like primers and bullets aren't specific to one cartridge, so it could be worth it to stock up when they're cheap.